Teleconferencing is cheaper than travel for holding meetings, particularly when many participants are involved. Manually setting up a teleconference is a cumbersome procedure, even with the most advanced corporate phone systems. It has become commonplace for companies to use third party teleconference service providers to set up conference calls. In addition to convenient set-up, third party teleconference providers offer enhanced features, such as a moderator, operator assistance, roll-call, voice recording, and transcriptions. Third party providers usually employ Internet-based account access, which includes teleconference scheduling, contact lists, and automated invitations. Teleconference scheduling software that integrates with common desktop e-mail, contact lists, and scheduling software such as LOTUS NOTES or OUTLOOK EXCHANGE are known in the art.
The procedures for establishing a teleconference are typically that a “host” contacts a third party provider through the Internet to set-up an account, and the third party provider assigns a phone number and two passcodes for the account. One passcode is assigned for participants and gives access to scheduled teleconferences. The other passcode is for the host, and provides permissions to perform special functions such as initiating a teleconference, purchasing additional features, allowing late arrivals to access the teleconference, and preventing conversation between participants until the teleconference starts. The host sets up a teleconference, designating a time and identifying invitees with the third party provider's scheduling software. The host or the third party sends invitations to the invited participants with the call-in phone number and the passcode. During the pre-conference dial-in period, participants call the assigned call-in number and give the passcode at the prompt. The third party provider verifies the passcode and connects each caller to the teleconference. Once the teleconference has started, participants are generally not allowed to join the conference late unless the host has made special accommodations. Late access usually requires intervention by the host, a moderator, or operator.
Passcodes and the teleconference phone number are generally assigned to the company which is the account holder and not necessarily to a particular person. The teleconference phone number and passcodes are used to charge the account holder for the teleconference services. Over time, as different participants engage in teleconferences, the passcodes become common knowledge. Even host passcodes become known as they are shared by well-intentioned coworkers to accommodate late arrivals or substitute hosts. Well known passcodes can lead to unauthorized use or eavesdropping. When teleconference participants include non-employees or customers, the security risks associated with well known passcodes are even higher. A need exists for a way to increase the security of teleconferences by assigning unique, single-use passcodes to each invited participant of a teleconference. These and other objects of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention.